Phase of expansion
2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Presentation
Introduction
National English Program in Basic Education. General observations
Purposes
Foundation
Language teaching approach
Organization and Distribution of contents
Teaching guidelines
Assessment
Educational materials
Bibliography
3
6
9
13
17
18
27
30
33
36
37
3
Presentation
The legal principles established in Article 3 of the Mexican Constitution, the educational
transformation encouraged by the 2007-2012 National Development Plan (Plan Nacional de
desarrollo) and the objectives outlined in the 2007-2012 Education Sector Program (Prosedu:
Programa Sectorial de Educación) have established the leading basis to provide direction and
sense to the actions in public education policies in Mexico.
Within this framework and based on the attributions granted by the General Law of Education (Ley
General de Educación), the Secretariat of Public Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública)
proposed as one of Prosedu‘s fundamental objectives to be achieved by 2012 ―to raise the quality
of education so that students improve their level of educational achievement, have a means of
accessing to a better well-being and thus, contribute to the national development‖.1 The main
strategy for attaining such objective in basic education is ―to carry out an integral reform in basic
education, focused on the adoption of an educational model based on competencies that
corresponds to the developmental needs of Mexico in the XXI century‖,2 envisaging a greater
articulation and efficiency among Preschool, elementary and secondary school.
Prosedu has also established that ―the criteria for quality improvement in education must be applied
to teacher training, the updating of curricula and syllabus contents, pedagogical approaches,
teaching methods, and didactic resources‖.3 Simultaneously, UNESCO
4 has indicated that
educational systems are to prepare students in order to face the new challenges of a globalized
world, in which the contact among multiple languages and cultures becomes more and more
common every day. In this context, the educational system is compelled to help students
understand the diverse cultural expressions in Mexico and the world.
It is from this perspective that the Undersecretariat of Basic Education acknowledges the need to
include English as a subject in the curricula of preschool and elementary education, as well as to
make the necessary changes to the English subject curricula in secondary school. The articulation
of the teaching of English in all three levels of basic education has the aim to guarantee that, by the
time students complete their secondary education, they will have developed the necessary
multilingual and multicultural competencies to face the communicative challenges of a globalized
world successfully, to build a broader vision of the linguistic and cultural diversity of the world, and
thus, to respect their own and other cultures.
1 SEP (2007), Programa Sectorial de Educación, México, p. 11. 2 Ibidem, p. 24. 3 Ibidem, p. 11. 4 Delors, J. La educación encierra un tesoro. Informe a la UNESCO de la Comisión Internacional sobre la Educación para el siglo XXI, pp. 31 y ss.
4
In order to carry out the actions that enable the articulation of English teaching, the Secretariat of
Public Education has implemented the National English Program in Basic Education (NEPBE or
PNIEB: Programa Nacional de Inglés en Educación Básica) from which syllabuses for the three
levels of basic education are derived. Such syllabuses are devised based on the alignment and
standardization of national and international standards, the selection of criteria for teacher training,
the establishment of guidelines for the design and evaluation of educational materials, as well as for
the certification of English language proficiency.
As shown in the following chart, the NEPBE includes diverse in-class testing stages and phases of
expansion, which have the purpose of collecting data that may offer valuable information regarding
the pertinence of the approach, the contents of the syllabuses, as well as the organization and
articulation through the four cycles of the NEPBE.
NEPBE in-class testing stages and phases of expansion
Sta
ge
or
pha
se
School year 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012
First in-class
testing stage.
Cycle 1
(Preschool 3rd
grade, Elementary
1st and 2nd grades).
Phase of
expansion for
generalization.
First phase of
expansion of Cycle
1 (Preschool 3rd
grade, Elementary
1st and 2nd grades).
Second in-class
testing stage.
Cycle 2
(Elementary 3rd and
4th grades).
Phase of
expansion for
generalization.
Second phase of
expansion of
cycle 1.
First phase of
expansion cycles
2 and 3.
Third in-class
testing stage.
Cycle 4
(Secondary 1st,
2nd and 3rd
grades).
5
The aforementioned stages and phases will enable the collection of data regarding the support that
teachers need in order to develop the expected competencies and learning outcomes, as well as
the implications the new curricular proposal has in the school organization. This way, it will be
possible to assess curricula, both academically and pedagogically, and incorporate the necessary
adjustments before they are generalized in preschool and elementary schools. In addition, the
results of this experience will allow to provide better resources for the generalization of the
curricular reform in all the elementary schools of the country.
From the curricular reforms carried out in Preschool (2004), Secondary school (2006) and
Elementary school (2009), the following leading principles were established from the curricular
articulation in basic education:
a) Basic education graduate‘s profile, which reflects the proficiency level that a student must hold
when graduating. Each and every subject of preschool, elementary and secondary levels should
aim to help students achieve this profile.
b) The competencies for life that must be developed during the three levels of basic education in
order to participate in society and solve practical problems, thus improving life and coexistence
standards in an increasingly complex society.
c) Curricular achievements indicate progress made by students; they express the expected
competency level of development, and they provide a synthetic description of the knowledge, skills,
attitudes, and values students can achieve after having studied one or more content units in a
subject‘s curriculum.
Consequently, since the incorporation of English as a subject is stated in the Integral Reform in
Basic Education, , curricular approaches previously carried out in preschool, elementary and
secondary school are mentioned repeatedly throughout the current document.
Secretariat of Public Education
6
Introduction
The contemporary society, predominantly governed by information and communication
technologies, requires citizens with the competencies needed to insert themselves within a
globalized changing world. Basic education is responsible for providing students with the
opportunity to develop these competencies. Thus, in order to accomplish the aforementioned, it
assumes the need for students to acquire some fundamental skills, such as the use and command
of these technologies and the command of at least one non-native language.
From this perspective, the 2007-2012 National Development Plan (PND, for its initials in Spanish),
in Axis 3, Equal Opportunities, points out as its twelfth objective: ―to promote integral education of
people in the complete educational system‖ and indicates that ―[for education] to be complete, along
with the abilities to learn, to apply, and to develop knowledge, it should address the appreciation for
ethical values, good citizenship, history, art and the culture, and languages‖5. Likewise, as a
measure to reduce the disparity in the quality between private and public schools, the PND
proposes that the latter should offer ―the possibility to study extracurricular subjects related to
sports, arts, culture and languages‖6.
At present, the teaching of English in basic education within the Mexican public educational system
is only compulsory in secondary schools. However, during the last few years significant efforts have
been made to include the English language subject within the elementary school.
In the national context, the endeavor carried out by 21 federal entities in generating their own
English programs for elementary education is acknowledged. However, the fact that these are not
at a national level has made their operation extremely heterogeneous in aspects such as coverage,
achievement levels, types of contents addressed, as well as teaching hours. In some cases, this
has hindered the continuity of proposals in the subsequent educational levels. This situation has
generated the need to design syllabuses for the teaching of English based on current regulations
(not only for secondary schools but also for preschool and for all grades of elementary education)
and to create conditions so that these can operate with equity and quality in all basic education
schools in the country.
To respond to this need and based on what PND and Prosedu have established the 2011 Curricular
Map for Basic Education opens two spaces for the teaching of English: preschool and elementary
education. Since English is part of the educational field of Language and Communication, this is
integrated into the curricular map as Second Language: English. Thereby, it assures its consistency
5 Presidencia de la República (2007), Plan Nacional de Desarrollo 2007-2012, México, p. 190. 6 Ibidem, p.178.
7
with the subject of Spanish and its articulation with preschool, elementary, and secondary
education. As shown in the following curricular map, the English subject thus has, for the first time
in its history, a place within the national basic education curricula.
The fact that the Elementary School Reform –which came into effect during the school year 2009-
2010– includes the teaching of English, undoubtedly represents some progress. However, the
possibility of putting this teaching into practice is limited by the shortage of teachers trained for this
purpose.
Therefore, it is worth explaining that the in-class testing stages and phases of expansion for the
syllabuses of English in basic education follow a different scheme from those of other subjects. This
can be seen in a couple of distinctive features:
8
1. Their design is organized by cycles and not by school grades, which guarantees continuity and
articulation in the different grades and levels in basic education. Thus, the program for Cycle 1
comprises 3rd grade of Preschool, and 1st and 2nd grades of Elementary school; Cycle 2 includes
3rd and 4th grades of Elementary school; Cycle 3, 5th and 6th grades, while Cycle 4 includes 1st,
2nd
and 3rd grades of Secondary school.
2. They are open and flexible, since they offer guided sequences of contents that enable the
teacher to carry out the adaptations demanded by specific scenarios of the complex Mexican
educational system reality:
Contents are basic and they are defined by two main categories: Social practices of the
language and specific competencies with the language. This allows contents to be
covered according to the learning progress of the students and the needs that
communicative situations demand to tackle such contents. Thus, the relationship between
contents and their transversal reading is guaranteed.
From this perspective, the basic education program for English teaching faces the challenge of
redefining its object of study so that the selection, presentation, and organization of contents is
feasible to the social practices of the language both, in school and out-of-school contexts. It is worth
mentioning that the social practices of the language and the specific competencies with the English
language presented throughout the four cycles of the NEPBE, acknowledge the disciplinary
underpinnings and learning contents of the subject. Among other reasons, as stated by A. Zabala
and L. Arnau, this is because:
Every educational project entails an intention, which sets its results for a future application
and is therefore essential. Educating does not have an immediate intention, its purpose is
that what is now being taught and learned within a school context, is used someday in the
real world, when the knowledge, skills, or attitudes once learned become necessary.
Therefore, these will never be used as they were once taught in the classroom […]. What is
going to be taught is not a series of contents logically organized as part of an academic
discipline; rather, their selection, presentation, and organization will depend on the
possibilities they each have to respond to ―real‖ situations or needs.7
The aforementioned, as well as the in-class testing and expansion stages of the curricular
guidelines, will allow the opportunity to have progressively enough teachers with the required
qualification for the appropriate teaching of the subject in the levels prior to secondary education.
7 Free translation by the National English Coordination. Taken from ―11 ideas clave. Cómo aprender y
enseñar competencias‖, Barcelona, Graó, 2008, p. 124.
9
National English Program in Basic Education
General observations
As shown in Figure 1, the NEPBE considers two ample stages. The first one is devoted to contact
and familiarization (Cycle 1); its main purpose is to sensitize students with the English language by
means of getting them involved in social practices of the language and specific competencies with
the language that are carefully planned and are the basis for later learning. The second stage
focuses on the formative teaching of English (Cycles 2, 3, and 4). In this stage, the students will
obtain the required competencies to use English in an effective way, by means of participating in
specific competencies with the language, defined by and based on social practices of the language
in different social learning environments.
In order to determine the extent and scope of the syllabuses, the time allocated to each cycle and
the Common European Framework of Reference for languages: learning, teaching, assessment
(CEFR)8 were used, the latter developed by the Council of Europe and The Association of
Language Testers in Europe (ALTE)9.
8 Common European Framework of Reference 9 Consejo de Europa y la Asociación de Evaluadores de Lengua en Europa.
10
Chart 2. CEFR Common Levels of Reference
The CEFR describes and establishes levels of common reference for 18 languages, English among
them. The six levels of this framework and their descriptors are shown in Chart 2.
Based on this framework of reference, the Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP) developed a
series of national standards for foreign languages and created the Certificación Nacional de Nivel
de Inglés (Cenni, by its initials in Spanish) with the purpose of showing the equivalences between
both groups of standards (see Chart 3). The Cenni standards were taken into account to establish
the minimum levels that students should attain after having completed each NEPBE cycle.
Chart 3. International and national standards
11
However, in the CEFR as well as in the Cenni, the number of hours suggested for each level has
been estimated for an adult population. This is why the NEPBE uses these documents only as
parameters to establish the contents for each cycle and the different time scales required to attain
each of the achievement levels. As shown in Figure 2, unlike the rest of the subjects in the 2011
Basic Education Curricular Map, the subject Second language: English is comprised into four cycles
that articulate the levels of basic education; the first and last include the greatest amount of hours.
This is how the basis for familiarization, approximation, acquisition, and consolidation of curricular
content for the subject Second language: English are established in order to attain the purposes in
the syllabuses and achievement levels.
On the other hand, as shown in the Chart 4, the amount of weekly sessions and their duration
varies depending on where the school grades are within the cycles of the syllabus.
Chart 4. Time and number of weekly sessions for the subject Second language: English
About the number of hours for the teaching of English, the NEPBE includes a total of 1060 hours,
which correspond to the sum of hours allocated to this subject in each school grade (200 days, 40
weeks). As shown in Figure 2, they are distributed throughout the cycles in such a way that these,
besides being accumulative, are necessary to attain the profiles (-/+) corresponding to the
achievement levels for each one.
12
From this perspective, the 300 hours assigned to work with Cycle 1 syllabuses are necessary to
attain A1 level of achievement corresponding to Cycle 2. Likewise, the total 500 hours that
comprise Cycles 1and 2 sum up the number of hours required to reach the A2 level of Cycle 3 (200
hours). Whereas the 700 hours based on the sum of Cycles 1, 2, and 3 plus the 360 hours of Cycle
4 are those necessary to attain level -B1 of Cycle 4 (1 060 hours).
Based on the previous distribution, it is expected that students attain at least Cenni level 3 at the
end of Cycle 1, level 5 towards the end of Cycle 2, level 7 at the end of Cycle 3, and level 8 when
they finish Cycle 4, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 also shows how NEPBE cycles compare with the levels of proficiency demanded by the
international standards for the achievement of English competency. This competency, however,
does not only depend on the amount of class time allocated to the target language, but also to other
factors such as student‘s competency in their mother tongue, teachers‘ level of English proficiency,
and the accessibility and availability of printed and multimedia resources (audios, videos, compact
discs, etc.) in this language.
It is due to this, and since one of the conditions to learn a non-native language is the exposure to it,
it is essential that teachers have a solid domain of the language, so as to achieve the minimum
levels of proficiency expected at the end of each cycle.
13
Purposes
General Purpose of English Language Teaching in Basic Education
The purpose of English language teaching in basic education is for students to get the
necessary knowledge to engage in social practices with spoken and oral language to
interact with native and non-native English speakers by means of specific competencies
with the language. This is to say, through competencies that involve production and
interpretation of oral and written texts –of familiar, academic and literary nature– students
will be able to satisfy basic communication needs in different everyday, familiar, and
known situations.
Thus, students need to learn to use language to organize their thoughts and speech;
analyze and solve problems; and gain access to different cultural expressions from their
own and other countries. Besides, it is essential that they identify the role language plays
in the construction of knowledge and cultural values; students should also develop an
analytical and responsible attitude to face the problems that affect our world.
Competency in the English language does not stem from mere repetition or exposure to it
for a very long time. It is necessary to have a variety of individual and collective
experiences that include different ways to participate in oral exchanges and in texts
reading and writing.
Therefore, the school –whose responsibility is higher in the case of students that come
from communities with low literacy and scarce or non-existent contact with the English
language– should provide the necessary conditions for students to participate in such
experiences, to reach gradual autonomy in their intellectual work, and to be able to
transfer what they have learnt in the classroom context to out-of-the-classroom
communicative situations.
Purpose of English Language Teaching for Cycle 1
The purpose of English language teaching for Cycle 1 in basic education (3rd grade
Preschool, and 1st and 2nd grades of Elementary school) is to raise students‘ awareness
about the existence of a language different from their own and to get them acquainted with
English by developing specific competencies particular to routine and familiar social
14
practices of the language, through the interaction among students and spoken and written
texts belonging to various social environments.
Therefore, at the end of this cycle, students are expected to:
Acknowledge the existence of other cultures and languages.
Acquire motivation and a positive attitude towards the English language.
Begin developing basic communication skills, especially the receptive ones.
Reflect on how the writing system works.
Get acquainted with different types of texts.
Start exploring children‘s literature.
Use some linguistic and non-linguistic resources to give information about
themselves and their surroundings.
Purpose of English Language Teaching for Cycle 2
The purpose of English language teaching for Cycle 2 in basic education (3rd and 4th
grades of Elementary school) is for students to acquire the necessary knowledge to
understand and use English in order to recognize, understand, and use common
expressions through the development of specific competencies particular to social
practices of the language related to the production and interpretation of oral and written
texts, pertaining to the familiar and community, literary and ludic, and academic and
educational environments. At the end of this cycle, students are expected to:
Express simple opinions and requests in familiar contexts.
Recognize basic instructions, information, and advertisements.
Identify basic aspects of pronunciation and vocabulary used in everyday life
contexts.
Use expressions to refer to personal aspects and needs.
Respond to spoken and written language in different linguistic and non-linguistic
ways.
Use different strategies to solve everyday problems, as well as to look for
information about concrete topics.
Identify similarities and differences of cultural expressions between their own and
the English language.
15
Establish basic social contact by means of their linguistic repertoire.
Purpose of English Language Teaching for Cycle 3
The purpose of English language teaching for Cycle 3 in basic education (5th and 6th
grades of Elementary school) is for students to develop specific competencies particular to
social practices of the language that enable them, through the interaction with oral and
written texts, to understand and use English to carry out simple, everyday communicative
activities about familiar and community, literary and ludic, and academic and educational
environments. At the end of this cycle, students are expected to:
Understand and produce everyday or routine information and its general meaning.
Begin or participate in some conversations or transactions using verbal and non-
verbal strategies.
Recognize similarities and differences in the form and social use between their
mother tongue and English.
Use strategies to present information, understand academic texts, and solve simple
problems.
Express opinions and provide short descriptions.
Produce comprehensible messages by adapting their linguistic forms and
pronunciation.
Use strategies to recognize form and understand content in a variety of simple
literary texts.
Interact with and use oral and written texts for specific purposes.
Socialize using common expressions.
Purpose of English Language Teaching for Cycle 4
The purpose of English language teaching for Cycle 4 in basic education (1st, 2nd and 3rd
grades of Secondary school) is for students to consolidate their proficiency in English in
basic communicative situations and develop specific competencies particular to social
practices of the language within a range of communicative situations, in which they
understand and produce, in general way, oral and written texts about different topics. At
the end of this cycle, students are expected to:
16
Identify the main idea and details from a variety of oral and written texts by using
their knowledge of the world.
Understand and use information based on different textual sources.
Produce short and conventional texts that respond to personal, creative, social,
academic, and institutional purposes.
Adapt their language to unexpected communicative needs.
Recognize and respect differences between their own culture and the cultures of
English-speaking countries.
Express some judgments and opinions about topics that are interesting to them or
resemble their everyday reality.
Use appropriate register in a variety of communicative situations.
Identify cohesive devices to understand the relationship between the parts of a
statement or text.
Edit their own or their classmates‘ writings.
Use grammar, spelling, and punctuation conventions.
Participate in formal communicative situations.
Keep communication flow, identify breakdowns and use strategies to repair it when
required.
17
Foundation
Language definition
The NEPBE shares the definition of language expressed in the 2004 Program of Preschool
Education; the 2006 Spanish syllabus. Secondary. Basic Education; as well as the 2008 Curricular
Parameters. Indigenous Language. Indigenous Elementary School. Basic education.
Language is a communicative, cognitive, and reflective activity through which we express, exchange, and defend
our ideas; we establish and keep interpersonal relations and gain access to information; we participate in
knowledge building, organize our thoughts, and reflect on our own discursive and intellectual creation.
Language shows a variety of forms that depend on the communicative purposes, the interlocutors, the type of text
or oral interaction, and on the medium by which the exchange is carried out. Writing a letter, for instance, apart
from involving creating phrases and sentences, implies selecting appropriate expressions that convey the purpose
of the author, the circumstances of the recipient and the patterns the writing process follows. In a similar way, a
conversation requires intonation, intensity, rhythm, speed, and pauses to adjust the meaning of the sentences10
.
From this perspective, learning a language implies acquiring rules of socially imposed (implicit) use
and the ways of using them in different social environments where people participate, in order to:
• Communicate ideas and convey feelings.
• Establish and keep relationships with people.
• Gain access to information.
• Build up knowledge.
• Organize thoughts.
Accordingly, the NEPBE –like the Spanish teaching programs and the curricular parameters of
indigenous languages– is far from omitting or excluding the formal study of the language structure
or narrowing it to the study of uses and functions. It establishes an approach to teaching in which
the capacity to reflect on language is closely related to the communicative functions of language,
whose purpose is to analyze and improve the communicative competence of students. Therefore,
not only does it take into account linguistic but also cultural learning, since one of its functions is
socialization, whose purpose is for students to relate with each other, to progress and reconstruct
the social world they live in.
From this perspective, to claim that the teaching approach that underpins language studies (mother
tongue, second language, or foreign language) minimizes or ignores the importance of grammatical
learning in the classroom is inaccurate and ill favored. This teaching approach promotes and
encourages reflection on the linguistic aspect of language, its functions, and communicative uses
necessary to achieve the effective and successful participation of students in social practices of the
language of the 21st century societies.
10 SEP (2006), Educación básica. Secundaria. Español. Programas de estudio 2006, México, p. 9.
18
Language teaching approach
Social practices of the language
Social practices of the language represent the core referent in the definition of NEPBE‘s
contents. This decision complies with the approach for language teaching adopted by the
Secretariat of Public Education, as stated in the syllabuses of subjects, such as Spanish
and Indigenous Language.
Social practices of the language are patterns or ways of interaction, which, in addition to the
production and interpretation of spoken and written texts, include several activities linked to them.
Each practice has a specific communicative purpose and a history linked to a particular cultural
situation. For instance, nowadays, the spoken language practices used in dialogs vary quite often.
The dialogue is established or kept according to social and communicative conventions of the culture
where the exchange takes place11
.
Given the status of English as a non-native language and the changes derived from its
implementation in the national curricula, a series of specific competencies –besides the
social practices of the language- are established to define the contents of this subject. The
specific competencies are conceived as complex and articulated configurations of the
doing with, knowing about, and being through the language, whose purpose is to preserve
the formal aspects and functions of language within social life.
These competencies involve three types of knowledge of different nature, which define the
programmatic contents. These are described as follow:
“Doing” with the language
This type of content correspond to the communicative actions carried out in concrete
interactive situations which, besides the production and interpretation of oral and written
texts, are necessary to accomplish the communicative aim associated with participating in
specific competencies with the language. Other reason is that ―individuals learn to talk and
interact with others while being in the same context. They learn to interpret and produce
texts (in spoken and written form), to reflect on them, to identify problems and solve them,
to transform them and create new genres, graphic formats and mediums; in other words,
to interact with the texts and with other individuals who are linked to them‖12.
11 Ibídem, p. 11. 12 Ibídem, p. 12
19
Therefore, the teaching treatment for this type of contents entails, on the part of the
teacher, a planning that guarantees that students ―will learn by doing‖, that is to say, they
learn to listen by listening, to speak by speaking, to read by reading, and to write by writing
in real communicative situations and with different purposes.
As a result, the contents of ―doing with the language‖ are not to be conceived as a simple
list of instructions or activities to do with students, but as curricular contents, whose clear
intention is to teach what a competent English speaker knows how to do to successfully
participate in activities with language in different social contexts. For example, in order to
record information on a specific topic, it is necessary to know the purpose of that
information (a conference, a community exhibition, to persuade someone to do something,
etc.), to recognize the intended audience (children, young adults, well-known or unknown
people, etc.), to identify where to find the information, what sources to use (books,
newspapers, specialized texts, etc.) or how to look for them (key words, dictionaries, etc.).
The contents of ―doing with language‖ are organized in a sequence that articulates the rest
of the contents (―knowing about language‖ and ―being through language‖) in a cyclic and
recurrent way. This has the purpose of helping teachers to plan the necessary stages to
create a product, solve a problem, attain a specific goal, and decide when and how to
address the ‗knowledge about language‘ required to develop the previously planned
stages.
In the case of the teaching of a non-native language, this approach is fundamental since
the functions of language are those that guarantee practice to be meaningful to students
and similar to what they will face in real life. Therefore, it is necessary to develop methods
to organize the educational work as shown in the following chart.
Guidelines to organize teaching work
Plan communicative situations that:
• Articulate the curricular contents (doing with, knowing about, and being through language) in a process that involves an initial, development and closing phase.
• Foster cooperative work, i.e. distribute actions that involve responsibilities among students, offer opportunities in which everyone participates, make sure couples exchange knowledge and are aware of what they need to learn.
• Allow to foresee difficulties and possible solutions as well as to evaluate each stage and
20
the process as a whole.
• Ease the way to approach unknown or particularly difficult contents that require an in-depth treatment to continue with the process and obtain the intended product.
• Boost students‘ self-esteem and confidence in the use of English.
Guarantee the development of routine activities that:
• Are the product of consensus and negotiation between teacher and students, instead of being previously determined.
• Foster confidence in students in the classroom, give a sense of belonging to the class, extend learning, and allow the processes to be more efficient in this situation.
It is important to highlight that routine activities are not prescriptive; whether they are
included or not, depends on the students and the teacher‘s interests and needs. However,
since they represent the opportunity for students to decide what to do with the language
(reading a story, listening to a song, practicing writing, analyzing a linguistic topic, etc.) .), it
is suggested to consider a specific time destined to this through the school year, e.g. one
session a month.
“Knowing” about the language
This type of contents involves a series of aspects, concepts, and topics for reflection on
features, characteristics, and elements of the language, aiming at students to ―raise
awareness about their knowledge, know aspects of the language they had not reflected on
before, and develop greater confidence and versatility to the use of the language. The
purpose of learning more about grammar, increasing vocabulary, getting acquainted with
writing conventions is to improve the students‘ skills for reading, writing, speaking, and
listening‖. This is why it is fundamental to introduce students to a challenge of oral or
written interaction in a real communicative situation –such as creating a product, reaching
a goal or solving a problem where they want to succeed, so that reflection on the language
processes makes sense and stimulate interest and motivation to learn.
Consequently, the teaching treatment that implies this type of contents will depend on the
students‘ need ―to know‖ to successfully overcome the challenges they will face when
participating in specific competencies with the language throughout the school year.
21
On the other hand, there will be times when it becomes necessary to formulate explicitly
knowledge of the linguistic system and the resources of the oral and written texts. From
this perspective, students‘ own needs and difficulties will let the teacher determine which
contents of ―knowing about the language‖ will require a specific teaching treatment and to
what extent, as this will allow students to progress and be successful in the tasks prepared
for each stage of the process. In this sense, these contents are not expected to be totally
covered or to be treated in the same way or extent. For this reason, specific suggestions
or examples are provided only when they are essential to an activity. Students are
expected to learn, develop, increase, and consolidate their knowledge in English to
participate efficiently in social practices of the language.
The types of knowledge about the language in all cycles of the NEPBE seek to:
Reflect on features and types of oral and written texts, which include the communicative
purposes they pursue, as well as the graphic and textual components they use.
Reflect on the English language and its structure, so that students can understand the
content of oral and written texts they study, and can efficiently produce their own texts.
Provide students with the necessary bases to develop awareness of the differences
between their mother tongue and the English language, in order to become
communicatively efficient.
Provide the students with a tool to identify the structure of texts they interact with. It is
important to point out that some of the features listed depend on the use they have in
different learning environments and are recurrent in different practices as their form
and/or meaning is determined by the context.
Reflect on the constituent elements of the linguistic system, their function and the way
they are connected to the knowledge of their mother tongue.
Provide students with the necessary knowledge to solve doubts regarding basic norms of
correspondence between speaking and writing, as well as spelling conventions whose
knowledge will bring about better outcomes in the production of texts. It is important to
consider that opposite to other cycles, Cycle 1 focuses its attention in the comprehension
of oral transactions in the English language. That is why spelling is not the main focus of
attention.
22
The contents of ―knowing about the language‖ comply with two basic functions of the
language: to be a means of communication and to be used as an instrument for thought. In
turn, topics and aspects for reflection on the language are taught through oral and written
texts in different social environments, because:
It is by means of production and comprehension of texts or speech that interaction
and communication among people is established.
Texts are -not words, sentences or isolated and out-of-context phrases- considered
as the minimum units with meaning and social sense. It is worth mentioning that it
does not imply eliminating their analysis, but focusing on knowing their function
within a text or speech according to the contexts.
It must be acknowledged that to understand and to produce oral and written texts in real
communicative contexts involves –besides the linguistic ―knowledge‖ itself–, a series of
abilities and strategies. Although these belong to the field of the pragmatic use of the
language, they are also part of a cognitive field, since they imply generating ideas,
selecting information, making outlines, etc. This recognition involves that, depending on
the communicative situation, the use of language is intentional and it is regulated by the
cognitive abilities and strategies that are put into practice.
“Being” through the language
These contents refer to aspects related to the role of intercultural education in general and
to language diversity in particular, as well as the multiple functions they carry out and the
attitudes and values underlying oral and written interaction. On the one hand, their goal is
to increase the opportunities for students to share their knowledge and experiences with
English through socializing the different products obtained during the work through tasks in
and out of school. On the other hand, it is to appreciate the importance of fostering a
harmonious, effective, tolerant, and inclusive atmosphere of communication.
―Being through the language‖ contents are transverse and permanent throughout the
entire NEPBE. Students must become aware of their own culture and that of other
countries, they must learn how to act with the language in different environments of social
life and value the consequences of their actions. For this reason, these contents have a
specific place within the syllabuses. However, given their transverse nature, the treatment
23
of this type of contents should not be limited to a particular moment; on the contrary, they
should be present in a permanent way.
In conclusion, far from reducing the curriculum content to a disjointed and out-of context
teaching of skills, knowledge, and values of the structure of the target language, it is
expected that the teaching of English be the same approach as the other two language
subjects. In other words, to provide an education that preserves the functions and uses of
language in social life. From this perspective, the problem is not when to begin teaching a
non-native language (before or after literacy in the mother tongue), but rather the why,
what, and how to teach and learn this language.
Hence, the contact with social practices of the language and the specific competencies
with the language derived from the former should be included since the initial grades of
basic education (3rd Preschool, 1st and 2nd grades of elementary school), as the
presence, contact, and familiarization with these practices and activities provide the basis
to guarantee:
Acknowledgment of the linguistic and cultural diversity of our country and the world
that facilitates the promotion and development of positive, appropriate, and flexible
attitudes required for the understanding among people and nations.
Confidence in the capacity of learning and being able to communicate in more than
one language.
Broadening of opportunities to interact with the oral and written language. That is
to say, to think about it, question it, compare it, use it, etc.
Finally, it is important to stress that one of the conditions for learning a language is to
understand the situation where it is used. For this reason, it is crucial that the learning of
the English language is centered on the students‘ experiences and interests when
engaging in communicative situations. Therefore, students are not expected to master
English as a native speaker, nonetheless the necessary actions are prescribed to reach
the purposes and achievements established in the cycles of the NEPBE.
Social learning environments
Unlike the students‘ mother tongue (Spanish or an indigenous language), the English
language is not present in most of their social environments due to its condition of non-
24
native language. This makes it fundamental to promote social uses of this language in the
classroom by creating social learning environments that compensate the absence of
English in the out-of-school context. Their implementation provides opportunities to learn
the diverse communicative registers and formats necessary to participate successfully and
with autonomy in everyday practices of the language in social life.
The purpose of the social learning environments established in the NEPBE is to preserve
the social functions of the specific competencies carried out with the language, so that
they become meaningful to students and can participate actively in reading and writing
activities as well as in oral exchanges.
Social environments contribute to create language learning conditions, in this case
English, since they entail the development of collective activities that favor exchange
among peers, making sure every participant knows what to do and what they need to
learn to successfully overcome the challenge of communicating in English with a specific
social purpose.
The practices of the language as cooperative activities based on social learning
environments will enable students to internalize them so that they can gradually become
capable of carrying out self-regulated tasks and strategies to deal with the difficulties that
may arise.
Also, the diversity that an intercultural context represents, as in the case of Mexico, can
and should be taken as an advantage for linguistic learning, as it opens up the possibility
of linguistic and cultural enrichment.
According to one of the CEFR objectives, incorporating a non-native language, such as
English, into the national curriculum implies emphasizing the relationship between
languages, so that both can benefit from the exchange:
The plurilingual approach emphasizes the fact that as an individual person‘s experience of language
in its cultural contexts expands […] he or she does not keep these languages and cultures in strictly
separated mental compartments, but rather builds up a communicative competence to which all
knowledge and experience of language contributes and in which languages interrelate and interact.13
13 Consejo de Europa (2002), Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para las Lenguas: Aprendizaje, enseñanza y evaluación, Instituto Cervantes (trad.), Madrid, Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte-
25
From this perspective, it is assumed that no linguistic variety is better than other; therefore,
rather than a correct or incorrect way of speaking English, there are appropriate or
inappropriate uses depending on the situation where communication takes place. Thus,
the aim is to establish spheres of usage in the classroom, and in the case of English, to
generate intentionally social environments in the classroom in order to recreate specific
communicative situations. This is fundamental to achieve the purposes of the four cycles
of the NEPBE. Specifically in Cycle 1, where the references to the elements of the
communicative situation such as non-verbal language, register, meaning conveyed in
words, participants attitudes, affective expressions, and all aspects involved in a
communicative interaction, are as important as, for instance, the recognition of elements
that form words and sentences, just to mention a few of them.
It is through participating in specific competencies with the language in diverse social
environments that the conditions to acknowledge the following aspects will emerge:
• A linguistic use and its characteristics.
• Linguistic competence students have (pronunciation, intonation, stress, syntactic and
semantic structure, etc.).
• Type of errors made (systematic or casual).
• Attitudes in communicative interactions.
• Values students give to events and people.
Familiar and community environment
In the familiar and community environment, students should approach English through
situations that are close to them, known, and familiar in order to foster a higher self-
esteem and confidence in their own capacity to learn. Thus, the basis and necessary
conditions are set so that by means of the ―doing with the language‖ students can activate
―knowledge‖ and ―values‖, as well as build and generate meaning in oral and written
communication, real or semi-real situations within a known context.
Educational and academic environment
The social practices of the language in this environment emphasize the strategies required
to learn and study in situations where students use formal and academic language both in
Subdirección General de Cooperación Internacional/Secretaría General Técnica del MECD-Subdirección General de Información y Publicaciones/Anaya, p. 4.
26
oral and written texts. The purpose of this environment is for students to participate in oral
and written situations that imply acting in and out of the classroom and continue learning to
successfully face the challenges of our present world.
Therefore, in this environment the emphasis is on the learning strategies that will allow
students to adjust their comprehension (listening/ reading) and production processes
(speaking/ writing) in order to identify meanings and solve problems that arise to fulfill the
aimed goals. In this environment, students are expected to learn how to participate in
social practices of the language that include knowledge about different areas of
knowledge.
Literary and ludic environment
This environment focuses on the approximation to literature through participating in
reading, writing, and oral exchanges in order to activate students‘ experiences and
knowledge so that they share and contrast their interpretations and opinions. This
generates the necessary learning conditions to participate in a social structure to broaden
socio-cultural horizons and to value beliefs and expressions different from their own.
Unlike the two previous social environments, this one in particular ―intends to foster a freer
and more creative attitude, to encourage the students to appreciate and value other
cultures, to go beyond their immediate environment, to discover the creative power of the
word and experience the aesthetic enjoyment that diversity and literary fiction can
produce‖14. Besides, the students get an opportunity to play with words (by speaking and
writing), using either their own or others‘ literary texts of interest to the teacher and
themselves.
14 SEP. Programa de estudio 2006. Español. Educación básica. Secundaria, p. 17
27
Organization and distribution of contents
As it was explained in the ―Approach‖ section, the social practices of the language
constitute the main reference in defining the contents. The specific competencies derive
from these and are distributed in three large social learning environments where the
interaction between individuals and texts takes place both, in spoken and written form. In
addition, it is where the interaction acquires a different nuance and where the activities
with the language fulfill different social and communicative purposes that makes sense
and gives meaning to the three types of curricular contents (doing with the language,
knowing about the language and being through the language) as shown in figure 4.
Figure 4. Organization and distribution of social practices of the language
As shown in figure 5, the components that organize and grade the curricular contents of
the subject are:
• Social practices of the language, which articulate the school grades in each of the cycles.
• Specific competencies that define the specific curricular contents for each school grade
in the cycles.
28
This way, each cycle includes ten social practices of the language distributed along five
units that correspond to the five two-month periods of the school year. As shown in Chart
5, units include a social practice of the language and a specific competency with the
language for each social learning environment, from which the contents and the actions to
create a product derive.
29
Chart 5. Unit components Unit II
Social practice of the language: give and receive instructions to make objects and record information
Environment: educational and academic
Specific competency: follow the steps of a set of instructions to make an object
Achievements Contents Product
• Identifies purpose and intended audience. • Identifies components of a set of instructions. • Completes instructions. •Identifies the order of instructions in a sequence. • Finds differences and similarities between words. • Writes, both in numbers and in letters, ordinal and cardinal numbers.
DOING WITH LANGUAGE Listen to and understand instructions to make a simple object (rattle, drum, etc.). • Identify topic, purpose, and intended audience. • Observe the distribution of graphic and textual components of a set of instructions. • Associate an instruction with an image. • Clarify meaning of words. • Identify cardinal and ordinal numbers. Participate in the writing of a set of instructions. • Determine the number of instructions or steps. • Distinguish instructions from list of materials. • Write ordinal and cardinal numbers. • Dictate words to complete instructions. • Identify differences and similarities in the writing of words. Read aloud a set of instructions. • Identify stress and intonation in words. • Identify consonant sounds. • Identify actions in instructions or steps. • Practice reading of instructions or steps. • Identify use and purpose of the object a set of instructions refers to. KNOWING ABOUT LANGUAGE • Structure of a set of instructions. • Topic, purpose, and intended audience. • Graphic and textual components. • List of suitable words. • Type of sentences. • Semantic fields. • Consonant clusters absent or non-frequent in the mother tongue. • Conventional writing of words without alterations, replacements or omissions. • Upper and lower-case letters. • Punctuation. BEING THROUGH LANGUAGE • Use language as a means of sharing and learning about cultural expressions.
Set of instructions. Plan the writing of the
set of instructions based on its structure: title, subtitles, list of materials, sequence of steps or instructions and illustrations.
Write the draft of the set of instructions including all of its components, based on a model.
Check the set of instructions with the members of the team and then with the teacher to make sure it is complete, instructions are in the correct order, and its writing complies with spelling conventions.
Write the final version of the set of instructions and include graphics that explain the steps to make the object.
Use the set of instructions to make the object.
Use and share the object with other group members.
30
Teaching Guidelines
According to the social practices of the language, the work carried out within the
classroom implies assignments and tasks which promote reflection, both on formal
aspects of the language and the uses which give them meaning considering didactic
observations such as the following:
a) Consider students as active participants in the construction of learning, which means
that, by using their own knowledge and experiences, students will be able to:
Take part in real-life or life-like communicative activities as language users and
learners at the same time.
Develop their own ideas and questions about the relation between linguistic forms
and communicative functions of the language, based on the analysis of language
use that students and people around them have in different social environments.
Make decisions, accept responsibilities, and have an opinion about the activities
related to the use and analysis of the English language, as well as, the creation of
products developed in the different social learning environments along the five
units included in each grade in the four cycles of the NEPBE.
b) Consider teaching as a process that fosters and encourages use (meaning) and
reflection (form) on language through specific communicative situations or tasks,
which challenge students and involves to:
Develop, expand, and apply the necessary knowledge and strategies to respond
successfully in different communicative situations.
Analyze their own communicative practices and those of the people around them in
order to understand, explain, question, adapt, and correct them depending on the
social sphere where they are and the intentions they have.
Face new and unfamiliar communicative situations, which enhance the students‘
ability to solve problems and deal with questions related to language use and form
and the behavior and attitude in specific activities with the language.
Work the activities with the English language as a means of promoting cooperative
work in order to deal with oral interaction and writing problems based on
negotiations, feedback, and analysis of knowledge, strategies, and problem
solving.
31
It is also necessary that teachers define, along with their students, the tasks (or projects)
that will give meaning to the contents of the program and at the same time, take into
account the following criteria:
Use previous knowledge, experiences, and interests that students have and know
about the practices of the language, both in their mother tongue and in English.
Choose real-life or semi-real life tasks the students are familiar with in order to
pose a challenge that involves creating a product, solving a problem or reaching a
goal.
Consider the level of complexity of the contents derived from the specific
competencies with the English language, so that they are both challenging and
feasible for students.
Guarantee that the tasks (or project stages) are organized as a recurrent cycle for
the students to be able to work on aspects or topics for reflection about English in
the three social learning environments.
It is convenient to take into account that the point is not to go over the same contents
repeatedly, but to establish teaching sequences that allow a suitable and adequate work in
different levels of depth and complexity.
Characteristics of the English language teacher
In order to achieve the NEPBE‘s goals successfully, it is necessary that teachers be
competent in the following areas:
a) English Language proficiency. In the process of teaching a non-native language, the
teacher is the most important model for spoken and written language, and sometimes
the only model available. Therefore, the teacher must be a competent and proficient
language user as well as a critical, well-informed agent knowledgeable of the aspects
related to linguistic analysis.
b) Knowledge related to the students’ development at different ages. The teacher must
have solid knowledge about children and adolescent development in order to
understand their needs, interests, and abilities, as well as the difficulties students face
in the foreign language learning process.
c) Knowledge related to the English language teaching. Teachers must understand the
essence of the subject matter (social practices with the English language), such as the
―doing with‖, ―knowing about‖, and ―being through‖ the language that derive from the
32
process, so that they can adopt teaching strategies that can fit their nature and the
socio-cultural approach which lead to teaching practices such as:
Modeling strategies used by expert English language users in different social
practices for oral and written communication, so that students can understand the
choices and decisions they can make to participate successfully in those practices.
Enabling and promoting students‘ attitudes toward reflection and analysis by
means of questions or problems that draw their attention and encourage their
interest in the uses, functions, and linguistic forms of the English language, as well
as in the similarities and differences between English and the students‘ mother
tongue.
Planning activities that keep the social functions of the English language and, at
the same time, enable the distribution, sequencing, and articulation of the
program‘s contents, giving students the opportunities to participate in them.
Deciding on the product to obtain based on the teaching approach of the contents
in each specific language practice, in order to guarantee the practice of uses and
social functions in communication, as well as the necessary aspects that help
present and socialize the product in a formal context.
Selecting or creating, if necessary, printed and multimedia resources, which
guarantee permanent contact with different models and styles of the English
language use.
Organizing and creating social learning environments, which foster and guarantee
permanent interaction with oral and written texts through English language
materials, as well as the distribution and use of the classroom‘s physical space.
Creating and fostering oral and written interactions, which enable students to be
aware of the consequences and impact when language is used.
Building a respectful atmosphere in which students feel confident enough to
practice and use English without fear of criticism by their peers or the teacher.
33
Assessment
Learning assessment should be conceived as a group of actions aimed at getting
information about the students‘ performance in order to intervene at different moments
(before, during and after) in the teaching-learning process, and decide whether the
teaching situations, the organization of work in the classroom, the use of materials and the
kind of help or guidance provided are on the right track towards reaching the program‘s
purposes.
Therefore, assessment is neither defined, nor established on the grounds of the
progressive levels, but by taking into account the teaching purposes, the specific
competencies and social communicative activities with the English language, and the
program contents.
From this perspective, the purpose of assessment is to help students identify what they
have learned in a specific period and what needs to be reinforced. In addition, to help
teachers revise and analyze their practice, so that they can re-consider, make decisions or
innovations, and in general, improve the language teaching-learning process.
Assessment is a core element in the syllabuses because it can influence the teaching
learning process, as well as its outcomes. In other words, assessment becomes the main
focus of attention for the teacher, the students and their parents, and it affects the
interaction among students and between them and the teacher in the classroom.
For this reason, it is necessary that assessment take into account:
• The students‘ performance during the development of tasks or programmed activities.
• The progress students make, related to their own starting point and the products derived
from the specific competencies with the English language in different social environments.
It is important to mention that it is not expected that students create language products
identical to those of a proficient user of the language or a native speaker; they are
expected to acquire in a sequenced way, the linguistic and written resources given by
different texts provided to fulfill communicative purposes. The aim is to create
opportunities for the students to compare their products with those in the social
34
surroundings of the classroom and out-of-the-classroom contexts, so that with the
teacher‘s support and guidance, the students will broaden and deepen their knowledge
and use of the English language.
Therefore, assessment should provide information about the extent of progress each
student shows in the different stages of the teaching- learning process. This allows the
teacher to grade and help students identify what they have learned after a specified period
of time (unit, semester, year, and cycle), becoming a continuous, permanent process and
not an isolated event which happens at the end of a teaching period. Some procedures
that allow for the gathering of information about the students‘ learning process as well as
their performance in class are:
a) Self-assessment and peer-assessment (co-assessment): they involve the students‘
appraisal concerning their own and their classmates‘ performance on the grounds
of some clear and well-planned criteria.
b) Portfolios (folder or file) that correspond to a gathering process of learning
evidence. The teacher and the students create a file or a folder where they will
keep the products derived from different tasks carried out during a specific period.
For the portfolio to be used properly there must be shared control and responsibility
between the teacher and the students.
The NEPBE states that as the ways to gather information about learning vary, a vision of
students‘ learning assessment will be clearer and therefore, fairer.
Teaching assessment
Assessment is fundamental to the improvement of the teaching-learning processes. Just
like the learning assessment, teachers can gather data about their teaching practice from
different sources, for instance:
a) They can get feedback from their students in a not-very-structured way, from
observing their reactions and performance, by means of formal interviews and
questionnaires applied to different people from the school community (for instance,
the students‘ parents or fellow teachers) or even through casual conversations.
b) They can get feedback through personal reflection on their own practice, preferably
in a structured way, in order to focus on specific areas, for instance, recording a
session, writing down the details of a lesson or keeping a journal of everyday
activities.
35
c) They can get feedback from other teachers who are willing to observe some
sessions and share honest and respectful comments. An important element in this
process is the ability to reach agreements on those aspects to pay attention to
before the observation takes place, in order to have a clear objective during that
session.
Assessing the teaching practice allows for the improvement of teaching quality, which will
benefit and have a positive effect on the teacher‘s personal and professional development.
Educational materials
Teaching materials play a highly significant role in this program. As it can be inferred from
the characteristics and definition of the components in the English syllabuses, the quality
and type of materials that the students will use –printed or multimedia– influence greatly
on their learning of English.
Since the social practices and competencies of and with the language are the main
reference of the NEPBE, texts and materials should be authentic, for instance, commercial
labels, letters, dialogues, instructions, rhymes, etc. However, it is also true that teachers
do not have frequent access to these English language materials or texts. Nonetheless, it
is of paramount importance that those –particularly the spoken and written texts– designed
for teaching, reflect the characteristics of those used in real life, that is, they have a clear
social and communicative purpose, a context, and respond to authentic language models.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) offer countless opportunities to interact
with oral and written texts in the English language. It is important to foster and take
advantage of their effective use, allowing new ways to acquire knowledge. It is necessary
to mention that ICT are not limited to computer- related tools, but they also include media
such as radio, TV, and video.
ICT are very useful tools to stimulate the specific competencies with the English language,
and in some cases, they are bound to enhance the social practices of the language like
writing and recording texts, looking for information in electronic sources, listening to native
speakers of English in a conversation or a song, among others. Therefore, a good
recommendation is to use these tools as often as possible.
36
Finally, it is important to bear in mind that the authenticity of the tasks is as important as
the authenticity of the spoken and written materials. If students are to be successful
participants in the social practices of the language, it is paramount for them to engage in
tasks that resemble the real world.
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